There are a variety of subgenres for vocalists in Korean traditional music, from folk songs to types of poetry, including japga, gasa, and the traditional three-stanza sijo, to pansori, danga, and changgeuk, a Korean aria, and vocals to accompany the gayageum. Of these, the legacy of the japga is also kept alive by the successors of the Gyeonggi Minyo(Gyeonggi-do Folk Song), which is government-designated Important Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 57. Thus the japga is also considered a type of folk song, or minyo. But unlike the minyo, which has always been a song of the people, the japga has always been the domain of professional sorikkun—a storyteller and singer—and the art of the japga has been kept alive in three regional forms, the Gyeonggi, Seodo (Hwanghae-do and Pyeongan-do), and Namdo(Jeolla-do) Japga.

Currently involved in the Order-made Repertory series—which draws from the Gyeonggi Minyo and Gyeonggi Japga—sorikkun Lee Hee-moon’s domain is the Gyeonggi Minyo. First debuting onstage last December, his piece —zap being a phoneticization of the Chinese character meaning mix—is a custom-created piece that involves 12 different musicians performing the 12 Japga songs. While japga was originally only accompanied by a janggu, or double-headed drum, composers Jang Yeong-gyu and Lee Tae-won arranged an accompaniment that included stringed instruments such as the gayageum, haegeum, and daegeum, as well as the flute. Contemporary dancer Ahn Eun-me, in her direction, added an element of dance and performance to the jwachang, a song originally a sung by a seated performer. The performers also took the segmented 12 Japga and rearranged the individual japga according to the lyrics, thus creating a japga with a narrative. Lee’s innovative efforts are particularly noteworthy because this new direction represents the birth of the nouveau japga. The following interview with Lee Hee-moon will hopefully act as a guide to appreciating his piece Jap, which will be shown at the PAMS Choice showcase of the 2014 Performing Arts Market in Seoul.

ZAP(雜), The Complex Amalgamation of Various Genres

Q(Song Hyeon-min) : has the 12 Japga as the foundation. Given that it’s strongly musical in nature, what motivated you to submit it to the Interdisciplinary/Other section of PAMS Choice?

A(Lee Hee-moon) : Music may be at the center, but the piece also contains a variety of performance elements. Contemporary dancer Ahn Eun-me oversaw the direction of the entire piece, and Jang Yeong-gyu, music director of Be-Being, and Lee Tae-won, music director of Music Group "Gomul" each arranged six of the 12 songs within the 12 Japga. The (latter) two are versatile composers that have worked in film, theater, and dance, with Korean traditional music as a foundation. The involvement of various artists enabled Jap to become the complex amalgamation that it is. It has dance and performance as well as song, and although Korean traditional music is at the core, I did think that, considering its external elements ,it belonged in the Interdisciplinary category.

Q : The name jap is derived from the word japga, though I feel like many of the audience members might wonder what a japga is.

A : Jap means "to mix" or "mixed." It’s sometimes viewed negatively, as is the same character you see in words such as japseureopda, which means "messy" or "chaotic," or japnyeon and japnom, vulgar expressions to refer to women and men of loose morals, respectively. The 12 Japga, just like a pansori performance, which in its totality lasts up to three or four hours, is something that requires the conclusion of its 12 songs. And unlike the minyo, which is traditionally sung by the common public, the japga is a song that has always required professionally trained vocalists.

Q : This might seem silly, but from the definitions alone it seems as though jap is almost interchangeable with the word interdisciplinary.

A : I want to compare the japga to today’s pop music. A single pop song might have elements of ballads, rock, and hip-hop. In the same way, the japga contains the musical language of many genres, and in that sense, the term japseureopda, meaning "mixed," is apt. Another similarity is that both pop singers and japga sorikkun draw on professional training and techniques. In fact, the japga was the pop song of Joseon-era society. There’s a legend that in 1896, Lee Hee-cheol, who at that time was studying abroad in the United States, was asked to sing a song from his homeland, and he sung the ＜jebiga(swallow song)＞, one of the 12 songs in the 12 Japga. The folk singers who sung the japga were also very visible in the mainstream media alongside comedians and other singers, up to the 1970s and ‘80s. The japga already has a lot of inherent potential for mainstream popularity.

The japga that were popular in Seoul are known to have been enjoyed in the later years of the Joseon Dynasty among a new middle class that included city merchants, who modified the lyrics to suit their sensibilities. It’s also said that these japga were influenced by pansori. The japga sorikkun of late-era Joseon were also popular throughout Seoul. But 35 years under Japanese rule brought about the disintegration of traditional culture, and since 1975 the minyo, along with the 12 Japga, have been designated as Important Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 57, andthe sounds have been kept alive by female sorikkun. The 12 Japga includes the following individual songs: ＜yusanga＞, ＜jeokbyeokga＞, ＜jebiga＞, ＜sochunhyangga＞, ＜seonyuga＞, ＜jipjangga＞, ＜hyeongjangga＞, ＜pyeongyangga＞, ＜dalgeori＞, ＜sipjangga＞, ＜churinga＞ and ＜bangmulga＞.

Sorikkun, Crossing the Gender Boundaries

Q : The approximately 80-minute Jap will be shown at the PAMS Choice showcase in a reduced format of 40 minutes. What is the original piece like?

A : The original piece consists of two parts, each with six songs. The first part, arranged by Lee Tae-won, focuses on the music. The second part, arranged by Jang Yeong-gyu, focuses on performance. Overall, the visuals are also strong, not to be outdone by the musical elements.

Q : How do the two parts differ?

A : The protagonist of Part One is Chunhyang. Chunhyang is the sort of female protagonist that might be found in a love story anywhere in the world. To bring this story to life, the songs were rearranged in the following order, beginning with , then on to , , , and finally .

Q : What are some of the musical differences?

A : The cheong of Korean traditional music plays the same role that the key does in Western music. The six songs of Part One were tuned to the same cheong, giving the songs a fluid, flowing feel. The six songs of Part Two all have a different cheong, so the result is a much more heterogeneous feel.

Q : How would you explain the characteristics of the shortened, 40-minute version of Jap to overseas marketers at PAMS Choice?

A : I’m proud in my belief that a stage like this, where you can view the 12 Japga in such a way, is unprecedented. Joseon-era japga was influenced by pansori, and among the pansori repertoire the most popular is likely the Chunhyang of the Chunhyangga. Chunhyang is both the protagonist and not the protagonist of the 12 Japga. For example, take the . The , and sections feature playboys and male characters, and thus require both male and female voices. Director Ahn Eun-me was aware of this and accentuated the arrangements accordingly.

Q : Would you say there is a unisex aspect to Korean traditional art?

A : This is just a guess, but I’m wondering if maybe the overseas advisory panel involved in the evaluation was perhaps attracted to this very aspect of our piece—although of course I’ll have to ask directly to know for certain. In Korean traditional art, male shamans, called baksu, have the body of a male. But as mediums, they need more than a single sexual identity, because they’re channeling both male and female spirits. When I become Chunhyang and sing, I have to overcome the fact of my being a male sorikkun, and try my utmost to bring a more neutral, unisex feeling to the performance. It sounds silly, but I feel like going to back to the sensibilities of my youth, when I liked Madonna, helps. Isn’t Madonna is the mother of all sexual minorities, embracing all genders? [Laughter] My teacher, master pansori singer Lee Chun-hee(designated holder of Important Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 57) saw Jap and joked that he thought Leslie Cheung of Farewell My Concubine(1993) had come back to life. I think it might be a good idea to think about the sexual identities of the opera singers in Farewell My Concubine in relation to this piece.

Q : When you look at the history of japga, you can see that in the Joseon Dynasty male sorikkun such as Park Chun-jae(1881–1948) dominated, and today it’s female sorikkun that largely dominate.

A : There’s some painful history related to that. The disappearance of japga today has to do with the day-to-day hardships and realistic problems facing the sorikkun. When a song isn’t sung, then both song and singer die out. And so women kept the art alive, as there was relatively less pressure on women to provide a living.

Q : Then are there any advantages to being a male sorikkun?

A : There are currently very few male sorikkun among the japga sorikkun, so at times I am treated as a rarity. Minyo are designated important cultural heritages, but the history of minyo culture contains a world of painful memories for female sorikkun. During the period of Japanese colonialism, for women who were socially looked down upon because they were gisaeng, or female entertainers, minyo and japga were more a way to earn a living than an art form. And so, as a male performer, I turned my gaze to the history of oppression of women in the art. I also plan to continue exploring the painful corners hidden in these songs in the future. Exploring the history of the disappearing male sorikkun is also something that I plan to explore through song in the future.

Q : What are your plans for the future?

A : I will create two or more pieces under the Order-made Repertory umbrella, and work with artists from a variety of genres. It’s a pleasure to work with these artists, because I can immediately grasp what elements I need to become more complete. In late October, after PAMS Choice, KBS will air their "In Search of Poetic Adventure" episode of the show KBS Panorama. It’s a recreation of Joseon-era paintings that depict people enjoying the arts. In December I’ll be performing with Jang Yeong-gyu, doing another piece from the Order-made Repertory series—Kwe(快), which means freshness and enjoyment.

Lee Hee-moon is something of an anomaly in the Korean traditional music world. He studied film at the Toho Gakuen Film Techniques Training College and, after working as an assistant director for music videos, came relatively late into his calling as a sorikkun, or singer of minyo. In many ways he’s a multifaceted grenadier, someone who is serious about both his responsibility to carry and pass on tradition as well as his commitment to venturing and experimenting. In the midst of these considerations, he is also struggling to rediscover the forgotten place of male sorikkun in a genealogy dominated by female sorikkun, and simultaneously playing with the boundaries between male and female sorikkun. This Lee Hee-moon is the artist behind Jap. Now, all we have left is to anticipate what sort of question marks and exclamation points the performance will throw at the domestic and international audience that gathers at PAMS Choice to watch.

ⒸHee-moon Lee Company